Machinery for making metal shoe-shank stiffeners



(No Model.)

` E. E. PAY. MACHINERY POR MAKING METAL SHOE SHANK STIFPENERS.

. n. l @l Patente-d Mar. 21, 1893.

UNITED l STATES PATENT EEICE.

EDGAR E. FAY, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS.

MACHINERY FOR MAKING METAL SHOE-SHANK STIFFENERS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. L193,860, dated March2], 1893.

Application liled April 20, 1892. Serial No. 429,836. (No model.)

l clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, and inwhich- Figure l represents a plan of so much of an apparatus for makingmetal shoe-shank stiffeners as is necessary to illustrate myimprovements. Fig. 2 is a side view thereof. Fig. 3 is a horizontalsection taken on line A.

B. Fig. 2, looking down as indicated by the arrow, showing a plan of theparts coming below said line, with the linked wire bending blocks,hereinafter described, left od. Fig. 4t represents upon an enlargedscale a side View of parts of said linked blocks where they tit togetherto perform the bending operation. Fig. 5 is a modification of theconstruction shown in Fig. 4f, showing straight, instead of curved,abutting edges for the purpose hereinafter described, and Fig. 6 is aperspective view of a metal shoe-shank stiffener, such as is made by theuse of my improved apparatus.

The object of my invention is to provide an apparatus whereby saidshoe-shank stiffeners may be made complete, p ready for use, by acontinuous and automatic operation and con sists in combining aspecially constructed, continuous bending or forming machine withsuitable means for punching, heating, cooling, tempering and cuttingapart the wire as it is continuously drawn forward from a reel bysuitable feed-rolls, as will be hereinafter more fully set forth.

To enable others skilled in the art to which my invention appertains tobetter understand the nature and purpose thereof, I will now proceed todescribe it more in det-ail.

In the drawings, A represents an ordinary reel from which the wire isdrawn forward by a set of feed-rolls B preferably arranged at theopposite end of the machine from said reel.

C is a punching machine for punching `the usual holes in each end of thestiffeners.

D is a heating furnace; E is my improved forming and bending machinebefore alluded to, which is provided with means as will be hereinafterdescribed, for cooling the wire as it is continuously bent and fedforward.

F is a tempering furnace, and G a cutting machine for severing thecompleted stieners from the forward end of the strand as fast 'as theyare moved forward into the proper position to be cut off.

Aside from the bending and forming mechanism and the combination thereofwith the various parts of the apparatus described, the independentelements employed in making up said apparatus are old, and I make noclaim thereto other than as above noted.

All of said old elements may be employed at once with my improvedbending mechanism, or only part of the same, as desired; as forinstance, the wire may be treated and bent continuously, and thenpunched and cut apart by separate operations; or either of saidoperations of punching and cutting may' be independently combined withthe aforesaid continuous process.

The special feature of myinvention, as before stated, is the bendingmechanism Whereby the curves ct are made in the wire H to produce whencut apart between said curved parts, the usual form of stiffeners I,shown in Fig. 6. Said bending mechanism is constructed and operates asfollows: Four rolls J, mounted on suitable drive shafts K are arrangedtransversely to the line of wire, and equi-distant therefrom above andbelow the same, and an equal, but preferably longer distance apartlongitudinally as is shown in Fig. 2. Upon the periphery of each of saidrolls are formed a series of longitudinal teeth or anges b equi-distantapart, whichl act in connection with the rolls, as sprockets toturn thechains of linked blocks L L', which are fitted over the same, and travelin con-tactVwith the wire between them, in passing betweenthe two setsof rolls, beingcarried around by said teeth or flanges engaging withcorrespondingly shaped transverse grooves c formed in the inner sides ofthe blocks CZ of the continuous chains L L aforesaid. Said blocks may belinked together in any suitable manner.

Their inner grooved faces are made straight, y

while their outer faces which come together are curved, the blocks ofone chain having concave curves from the centers nearly out to theirends, and those of the other, convex curves to fit into saidconcavities. For a short distance in from the ends of the blocks, saidcurves are flattened to nearly a straight line, to produce the iiattenedportions a required at the ends of the stffeners, where the holes e arepunched therein to secure said stiffeners in place in the shoes.

It will be apparent that, without some means of holding the blocks ofthe two chains together in their passage between the two sets of rolls,no bending of the wire would be performed except at the two pointscoming in vertical lines with the rolls, and then, onlyin an imperfectmanner. Therefore, it is necessary to provide some special adjustablemeans arranged between the rolls, which shall hold the line of linkedblocks just enough apart to receive the wire between them in passingthrough, and thus impart thereto the contour of the blocks, as is bestshown in Fig. 4;. As various differently constructed devices may beemployed to accomplish this result, I do not limit myself to any specialconstruction thereof.

In the drawings I have shown a fixed plate f under the abutting line ofblocks, and an adjustable plate g over the same, the latter being heldagainst longitudinal movement in a fixed bearing h and against theblocks by a series of set-screws c' which turn in said fixed bearing andwhose inner ends bear against the top face of said plate, thus admittingof the adjustment thereof to different thicknesses of wire. It ispreferable in practice, to combine with said bending operation means forcooling the wire as it is being bent and passes from between the blocks.This may be accomplished by discharging a stream of water or oil from apipe j onto the blocks as they travel forward,-the water fiowing oversaid blocks into a tank 7c through which the bottom blocks pass andthence over-fiowing to alarger tank l underneath, or otherwise disposedof as circumstances may require. The fiow of water or oil into the upperor cooling tank 7c should be sufficient to exceed the outflow at theends where the blocks pass through, so as 1o keep the bottom blocksconstantly submerged. It is, therefore, obvious that as the hot wirepasses in between the bending blocks, the proper shape is impartedthereto, and its temperature is also at once lowered ready fortempering.

In practice, it will be understood, that several strands of wire will betreated by my apparatus at one time.

The operation is, in brief, as followsz-Assuming the reel A to be loadedwith a coil of wire, of the proper size and shape to produce the desiredstiffeners, and drawn therefrom by the feed-rolls B through theapparatus, the dierent stages of the treatment consist first in punchingthe holes c by means of the punching machine C, in pairs, a shortdistance apart, at intervals along the length of the wire, correspondingto the length of stifteners; or, in other words, so that one hole ofeach pair will form the end openings of the completed stiffener when cutfrom the strand between each pair of openings as hereinafter described.Passing from between the dies of the punching machine, the wire nextpasses through the heating furnace D and is heated; thence throughbetween the lines of bending blocks of the bending machine E, wherebends sufficient to produce several stiffeners are made in the wire, andsaid wire also cooled or hardened by the water or oil bath previouslydescribed; thence through the annealing bath in furnace F to properlytemper the same and finally, passing between the cutters of the cuttingmachine G, the completed stieners are severed successively from the endof the strand as it is fed forward,-all by a continuous and automaticoperation, -the several operating parts of the apparatus being so timedin unison with each other as to perform their several offices with onlya slight interruption in the intermittent forward movements of the wire.

The operations of punching, bending and cutting apart the wire, it willbe understood, will be done simultaneously, the said wire being stoppedbut a moment in its progress for the purpose above stated, and when thepunching operation is performed independently, the progress of the wiremay be contin nous, without said intermittent stops, the cuttingmachine, in practice being made to clip off one stiffener, afteranother, without stopping the wire.

Although I prefer to combine one or both of the punching and cuttingmachines with the other parts of the apparatus, I do not limit myselfthereto, as the special feature of my invention is the heating, cooling,and tempering combined with that of bending the wire in the class ofapparatuses to which my invention appertains. By the application of thisfeature of my invention it will be apparent that not only can strands ofmetal be made into the form of shoe stiifeners by a continuous,automatic operation, but also many other articles susceptible of beingmade from such material may be made with equal facility. I also reservethe right to make the faces of the linked blocks straight as shown inFig. 5, instead of curved as previously described.

The last described construction is applicable to the treatment ofstraight wire by my apparatus to produce the same in a uniformly smoothand perfect condition, which is now difficult to perform by the usualtreatments, the same beingliable to be crinkled or warped in itscompleted state, which objection, it is obvious, may be entirely removedby my invention.

Having now described said invention, what I claim therein as new, anddesire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1.v An apparatus for making metal shoc IOO ITO

shank stieners, comprising, in combination, the following elements,-areel for holding the coil of wire, a punching machine for punching theholes coming at the end of each completed stiffener,a furnace forheating the Wire preparatory to bending the same into the form of thestiifeners; mechanism substantially as described for forming said bends;means for cooling or hardening the wire as it is bent; a furnace fortempering the wire; feed rolls for drawing the wire from the aforesaidreel through the machine, and a cutting machine for severing thecompleted stiffeners successively from the forward end of the strand, asfast as fed forward by a continuos orintermittent, automatic operation,substan tially as set forth.

2. In an apparatus for making metal shoeshank stiffeners bendingmechanism consisting of a pair of endless, linked blocks, fitted oversuitable toothed, carrying rolls, arranged parallel at a short distanceapart, and said linked blocks held in contact with the wire between, fora port-ion of the distance traversed by them, and having means forsupplying a Iiow of water or oil over the same, to cool the wire, asdescribed, in combination with a heating furnace, and a temperingfurnace arranged, one at each side of said bending mechanism, a suitablereel for holding the coil of wire to be operated upon, and suitablefeed-rolls for drawing said wire through the apparatus, substantially asand for the purpose set forth.

3. In an apparatus for making metal shoeshank stieners, bendingmechanism, con sisting of a pair of endless linked blocks fitted oversuitable toothed carrying rolls arranged parallel at a short distanceapart 'and said linked blocks held in contact with the Wire between, fora portion of the distance traversed by them, and having meansforsupplying a iiow of water or oil over the same, to cool the wire asdescribed, in combination with a heating furnace and a tempering furnacearranged one at each side of said bending mechanism, a suitable reel forholding the coil of wire to be operated upon; a machine for punching theholes coming at each end of the completed stieners, and suitablefeed-rolls for drawing said wire through the apparatus, substantially asand for the purpose set forth.

4;. In an apparatus for making metal shoeshank stieners, bendingmechanism consisting of a pair of endless linked blocks iittedoversuitable toothed carrying rolls, arranged parallel at a shortdistance apart, and said linked blocks held in contact with the wirebetween, for a portion of the distance traversed by them and havingmeans for supplyin g a iow of water or oil over the same, to cool thewire as described, in combination with a heating furnace and a temperingfurnace arranged one at cach side of said bending mechanism, a suitablereel for holding the coil of wire to bc operated upon suitablefeed-rolls for drawing said wire through the apparatus, and a cuttingmachine for severing the stiffeners successively from the front end ofthe strand as fast as fed forward, substantially as and for the purposeset forth.

EDGAR E. FAY. Witnesses:

A. A. BARKER, W. B. NoURsE.

